I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of entertainment and, more specifically, to techniques for playing a game of chance providing networking opportunities for large groups of players.
II. Background Information
At entertaining public gatherings, whether business or social, many participants find it difficult to approach and interact with one another, even with individuals they know or have met in the past. For example, a participant may lack certain networking skills, be nervous about approaching other participants or starting a conversation, or be concerned about rejection.
On many occasions, it is also difficult for the participants of live or online public gatherings to establish a balance between their desire for a need to network with particular individuals of personal or business interest and a risk of engaging themselves in confusing or harassing situations. In addition, underlying purposes of some of the public gatherings, when they are explicitly announced or advertised, may also lead to additional confusions between some groups of prospective participants, as well as reluctance to take part in the gathering. Such considerations are applicable to a broad range of public gatherings, including many social, business, professional, dating, and entertainment events.
Games and, specifically, games of chance are forms of entertainment that allow the players to naturally participate together in a gaming environment of a particular game. However, such games often create conditions for competitive rather than entertaining relationships between the participating players. Since during the game the players play against one another, they may have little or no opportunity or excuse for networking or partnering. Moreover, a competitive nature of these games may actually make it more difficult for the players interested in social or business interactions to introduce themselves to one another or interact because such a behavior would contradict or appear contradicting to their personal game-dictated goals of being individually successful (i.e., winning) players.
Therefore, despite the considerable efforts in the art devoted to techniques for using the games of chance for providing networking opportunities for their respective players, further improvements would be desirable.